Excellence Section – Horizon Europe
Published on 09/07/2021 by Marlene Kopf, updated on 26/08/2022
How to write an outstanding Excellence section for your proposal
- The excellence section is the first that reviewers see!
- Read the call text carefully and adapt your text to the EU requirements
- Clearly state your vision, the approach, and the expected impact
- Explain how your project goes beyond the
state-of-the-art - Show that you are interconnected in the
research community
What does the European commission expect you to write in your Excellence section?
The Excellence section in Horizon Europe comes first while reading a project proposal, and this has the purpose that the reader immediately gets an idea whether the author has the required knowledge, skill set and network to carry out the project.
It gives an overarching view over the projects objectives, the state-of-the art and how the project advances beyond it, and a brief description of the methodology (a detailed methodology section with work package description is present in the Implementation section).
Determine appropriate objectives for your Horizon Europe Excellence section
The first step is about the objectives of your project. To formulate appropriate objectives, bear in mind that:
1) Your project has a significant, overarching goal. This overall objective of your project must be clearly stated in the very first lines of the proposal!
2) In addition, there are subordinate, specific objectives described in the Excellence Section of Horizon Europe
Read the call text carefully
There, you will find many of the objectives that the EU Commission expects. There are three levels of the call to consider:
- Topic text: Precise call objectives are described in the section’s scope and expected outcome.
- The Destination under which the selected topic is published: The introductory text specifies expected impacts, which you should also consider.
- Strategic Plan: The cluster-specific annexes also list objectives and expected impacts that you can refer to.
The objectives of your specific project are derived from the call text, the concept chosen for the project, and the approach. It is important to formulate the objectives clearly. This makes it easier for the evaluators to follow the project idea and increases the chances of your proposal being successful.
You need general advice to write your IA/RIA proposal? Check out our dedicated page:
→ How to write a successful RIA proposal? ←
Help to formulate the objectives in the Excellence section
1) Question your project idea
- What is my vision?
- What do I want to achieve concretely?
- What approach do I choose?
- What do I need to achieve in the project to serve the scope and to achieve the expected impact in the long term (see strategic plan in the cluster-specific annex)?
2) Think of the project from back to front
- Start from the expected impact.
- Which target groups must be addressed to realize this impact?
- What does the target group need to realize the impact?
- What of it is missing? What results do you need to deliver in the project?
The guiding question is: What do I want to achieve? What do I need to achieve to enable the expected outcome of the topic? NOT: What do I want to do? The objective is not the work plan or a list of work to be done.
3) Set goals according to the SMART principle
- S: Your goals should be specific and concrete. What exactly do you want? Is the goal formulated precisely? Is the goal formulated and understandable? Is the goal consistent with the expected outcome and scope from the topic text and the expected impact from the destination description and strategic plan (as well as the community’s overall goals)?
- M: Measurable goals are reasonable goals. How do you know that the goal has been achieved? Can everyone determine the achievement of the goal? Are there key figures or quantifiable parameters for goal achievement? How much of it?
- A: Come up with attractive and acceptable goals. Do you want to achieve the goal? Is the goal attractive to others as well? In other words, is it relevant to your target groups?
- R: You need realistic goals. Is the goal within the realm of possibility? Is the goal challenging but not overburdening? What is the price? What is the risk?
- T: Set time-bound goals. When should the goal be achieved? Are intermediate goals also scheduled? What happens afterward?
Who are you writing the proposal for?
When writing the proposal, the evaluators are your target audience! They are the ones who need to be convinced. And you need to do this on the first few pages.
A recommended structure of the first chapter would be:
1) Start with a brief introduction that clearly states the problem, the relevance of the problem, the concept, and the proposed solution approach.
2) From this, the vision or overall objective can be derived.
3) The overall objective then leads to the specific project objectives.
4) The project objectives are derived from the topic text and the concept and approach chosen in your project.
The objectives must be achieved within the project duration!
Formulate the objectives tightly, precisely, and as measurable as possible. Ask yourself: is it an actual goal or a means to an end? The objectives must be clearly stated so that the evaluators can easily follow the application, as they have limited time to read each proposal.
Tip: Have people outside your field read your proposal or send it to your National Contact Point (NCP). They will give you confidential and free feedback on any aspects that need to be improved.
What are the advantages of your innovation?
- Describe the advantages of your solution (product, technology, service) compared to currently available solutions.
- IMPORTANT: Consider this from the user’s perspective (user, customer, patient): What are the benefits to the user?
- Benefits: Is your solution more straightforward to use, perhaps more practical, and more fit for purpose? Does it solve a previously unsolved problem?
- Price: Is your solution more cost-effective?
- Lifetime: Is your solution more durable? More degradable? More sustainably produced?
- Who else can benefit (directly or indirectly) from your solution, e.g., politicians, certain social groups, research/standardization?
A recommendation on the side: Protect your intellectual property early on. You can find support, e.g., at the IPR Helpdesk of the European Commission.
Tip: Patenting costs incurred in the context of an EU project are eligible for reimbursement.
Where does your project fit in the value chain?
The third aspect of this section in the proposal is the positioning of your project in the value chain. The following questions should be answered:
- Where are we now? What is the state of the art?
- How mature is your idea? More basic research? More application-oriented research? More validation, prototyping, or demonstration?
- How far will you get in the project?
- Use Technological Readiness Level (TRL) only if it is explicitly mentioned in the topic text (see the “general annexes” of the work program for more information on this).
Methodology in the Excellence section: what to write here?
The Methodology section is written in narrative form. It should not contain a detailed description of tasks or work packages; this is only foreseen in Chapter 3 (“Implementation”).
In the Excellence section of Horizon Europe, the evaluators want to know: Are the methods in the project adapted to the challenge? Here is the place to describe your project’s main ideas and models, hypotheses, and assumptions.
There are two guiding questions for the Methodology section:
1) What is the big idea behind the proposal?
2) How do you get from the big idea (concept) to your results? How do you achieve the targeted objectives?
To describe the big idea behind your proposal, the following aspects are important:
- Where are we now? What is the state of the art?
- Where are the gaps and needs, i.e., what are the problems? What problem do you want to contribute to solving?
- Why is this relevant? Why is it relevant for Europe?
- Are there any new findings that enable a new approach (own or others’ previous work)?
- What basic considerations, hypotheses, assumptions, and models are the basis of the new approach?
How well are you connected to the research community?
You should describe which partners or contacts you have relevant to the project, whether results from previous projects are already available, and how you can access them.
IMPORTANT: Use synergies, especially with public funds! Use the knowledge that has already been generated! Do not reinvent the wheel. Synergy is a magic word; don’t spare to use it in your proposal.
The following questions will help write this section:
- What projects on this research topic already exist? (From other institutions and your own, national, EU-wide, and international).
- Do you have contacts for these initiatives (e.g., through partners in the project)? How are you “rooted” in the scene?
- Do you have access to the results, and can/do you use these results? Do synergies arise?
How did you put your consortium together?
The composition of the consortium influences the evaluation of the excellence of your proposal. The problems are usually too complex to be solved within only one discipline. Therefore, the EU Commission expects interdisciplinary consortia. Interdisciplinarity is critical in so-called “multi-actor-approach” projects.*
If you think an interdisciplinary approach is unnecessary for your project idea, justify it here in the Excellence section of your Horizon Europe proposal.
The most important questions here are:
- Which disciplines are relevant, and whom must you involve in the solution?
- Do (non-academic) stakeholders need to be involved? Put a focus on end-users (farmers, consumers, policymakers, industry, society represented by interest groups, patients represented by patient associations, etc.).
How do you integrate social sciences and humanities, gender aspects and open science in your proposal?
Social sciences and humanities (SSH) must be integrated in some projects. Even if this requirement does not exist, it is positive if you incorporate them into the proposal.
The gender dimension plays an increasingly important role in the proposals. The description of this aspect is mandatory unless it is marked otherwise in the topic text. In this section, this refers to the content of the proposed research and innovation project, not to the gender balance in the consortium.
Answer the question: Does the topic involve sex/gender aspects?
Sex refers to the biological sex, important, e.g., regarding incidence/prevalence, the influence of sex hormones, the impact of temperature on the sex of marine organisms, or similar. In contrast, the gender characteristics of a person are shaped by society and culture. An example where gender aspects matter would be a project in which a prevention measure against virus transmission is to be developed, e.g., wearing a mask: This may be accepted differently by men and women. Therefore, an expert in the project should investigate whether the developed measure is accepted equally well by all or not.
Next, describe how you will implement open science principles as an integral part of your project.
This includes the following points:
- Early, open access to research results (pre-registration, registered reports, pre-prints, crowd-sourcing)
- Management of research results
- Measures to ensure the reproducibility of results
- Open access (publications, data, software, models, algorithms, workflows)
- Participation in open peer review
- Involvement of all relevant stakeholders, including citizens, society, and consumers, i.e., co-creation of R&I agendas and content (e.g., citizen science)
Communication, dissemination, and exploitation do not belong here, but in Chapter 2 (“Impact”). Finally, you have to describe what your research data management and the management of other research outputs look like. The EU Commission requires the FAIR principle to be taken into account. The ultimate goal of this principle is to ensure the reusability and recyclability of data:
- F: Findability of data/research outputs (types of persistent and unique identifiers, e.g., digital object identifiers and trusted repositories that will be used)
- A: Accessibility of data/research outputs (IPR considerations and the timeline for open access; if open access is not provided, explain why. Provisions for access to restricted data for verification purposes)
- I: Interoperability of data/research outputs (standards, formats, vocabularies)
- R: Reusability of data/research outputs (licenses for data sharing and re-use)
If you don’t want to share data but use it yourself, that’s fine too; write it openly here. That is what the Excellence section in Horizon Europe is for as well!
Short and sweet: The most important tips for Methodology in Horizon Europe Excellence
- Describe the problem and the need.
- Make clear the relevance of the problem (to whom, what target groups?) and the solution you offer.
- Demonstrate that you are networked, knowledgeable, and have all the necessary expertise/disciplines on board.
- Use graphics that clarify your concept in the Excellence section in Horizon Europe.
- The methodology part is not about the detailed description of the work packages or each step but the big picture.
- The initial hypothesis forms the basis of the concept.
- Your concept choice is crucial for the choice of approach and methodology.
- Write the proposal for the evaluators! Note the evaluation criteria. Tip: Consult colleagues from outside the field or your NCP as test evaluators.
- The proposal must be appealing. Innovative ideas, excellent science, and outstanding consortium alone are not enough!
- The proposal must be coherent. The described challenges, goals, solution approaches, and the project plan must fit together. All information important for understanding must be included.
- Internet links should not be included and will not be considered by the evaluators.
- Pay attention to details. Write clearly and simply. Avoid long paragraphs. Use illustrations and diagrams. Avoid spelling errors. Avoid inconsistencies. Explain abbreviations and terminology.
- Good to know: Evaluators review under time pressure. They sometimes come from other disciplines and are not always experts in every aspect. If the proposal is easy to read, this will create a positive mood, which can certainly impact the evaluation of your proposal.
- Get the page number limit in mind. Anything over 45 pages will be cut off when uploading Part B.
*Excursus: What characterizes a multi-actor approach?
- Real participation of various stakeholders along the entire value chain (industry, end users) – Keyword: demand-driven research and innovation
- Clear commitment of non-research actors
- Knowledge exchange is meaningful (scientific and practical knowledge)
- All stakeholders, including consumers, are involved in all project phases (not necessarily as partners), i.e., from planning to implementation, realization, and exploitation.
- Involvement of stakeholder representatives in dissemination activities.
- Coordination of expert networks requires management resources.
The MIC as your Horizon Europe partner
We will be glad to participate in your project. Visit our dedicated webpage to learn more about our expertise as H2020 and Horizon Europe partner!
Curious about the calls currently open?